All Posts Tagged With: "Twitter"
Google and Microsoft both have deals with Twitter?
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Oct 22 2009 | 0 Comments
Google said that it has reached a deal to show content and Tweets from Twitter though its searches. Marissa Mayer, the vice president of search products and user experience, said on Google’s website that the deal had been reached on the same day that Microsoft announced that Bing had come up with a similar deal with Twitter.
“We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months,” Mayer wrote.
Both of the search companies want to provide the kind of real time search results that Twitter and other social networking sties are using. Microsoft has gone a step further than Google by having a second agreement with Facebook. With that deal, financial terms were released and Microsoft will have a $240 million ownership stake in the company.
Real time search results are something that makes traditional search engines like Google and Yahoo interested. They don’t have real time search abilities and most sites have to be indexed before they can be searched. With real time search results, instant knowledge of an event can be sought. For example, if your Gmail account isn’t working, you can search on Twitter to see if you’re the only one experiencing the problem or if other people are having the same issue.
Related posts:Using Twitter as a marketing tool.
Google has to do something about this problem
Tags: vice president, traditional search engines, user experience
Facebook continues to beat Twitter about its social networking head
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Oct 14 2009 | 0 Comments
Marketing is so much fun. When you try to keep ahead of the game in marketing you really have to pay attention to where the people are. Facebook is where the people are and it is really showing.
Over the summer the gap between users of Facebook and users of Twitter increased by 25 million people. There are roughly 21 million people using Twitter and close to 96 million people using Facebook according to comScore’s records.
The only problem with comScore’s number is that it doesn’t take into account the people who use Twitter without logging into the site. It is expected that nearly half of its users get into Twitter this way; through programs on their phones or programs on their computers like TweetDeck.
I think that Facebook just has the better business plan for the long run. Then again, most of you who have been reading this site for awhile know how I feel about Facebook. I feel as though people like Facebook on a more personal level because they really enjoy being able to connect with people who they have lost touch with; or they are simply nosy and want to know what is going on in the lives of acquaintances (or those same people they have lost touch with).
Twitter is being used to market things through promotions and customer service more than anything else it seems. While on Facebook, a company can create a page where people can become a “fan” of (kind of like following on Twitter). The difference is, on Facebook, the people who are friends with someone who is “a fan” of a company will see that company in their “suggestions” box from time to time. When someone becomes a fan of something, their friends are typically notified through the news feed.
It’s a great marketing tool if you can get enough people interested and to become a fan.
Related posts:Is Facebook a social “superpower”?
Save money with social networking
Tags: better business, customer service, facebook
Using Twitter as a marketing tool.
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Sep 24 2009 | 1 Comment
Twitter is one of those internet phenomenons that have really taken off in the past year or so. Ask the average person last year what Twitter is and they may have given you a sideways glance; ask that same person today and they will be able to tell you exactly what the site is: Microblogging.
As a business owner, there are ways to use Twitter to your advantage. One of the most publicized ways is to use it as a marketing tool. Then again, I suppose if your business is on Twitter that is really the only way to use it, right?
But, can Twitter be truly effective as a marketing tool for your company?
The answer is yes and there are many ways to use it to your advantage.
The first thing you can use Twitter for is to find out if anyone is talking about you. Even if you don’t have an account yet, you can search through “tweets” to see if someone is saying anything about you or your company. There are so many messages being posted daily that, if you have a company that people visit either in person or online, surely you will be mentioned at one point or another on the site.
The second thing that you can use Twitter for is to release promotion information and news about your company. Because of the 140 character limit on your tweets, you should link the news and information to a page where you can give everyone the real story.
One of the newest ways Twitter is being used by companies is customer service. There are companies that are tired of being seen in a negative light and are really ready to do something about it. This is where Twitter comes in. When someone tweets about the company, the company responds and actually tires to fix the situation. This has happened a more than a few times so far and I’m sure that this trend will continue to grow. If you wanted to participate in this trend, then it will likely get positive publicity for your company.
The downside is that if your company is seen as spamming Twitter or you have a bot doing all of your Tweeting, then its likely you won’t have quality followers. No one wants to read the same tweets on a daily basis linking to your site. If they wanted to visit your website, they would just do it; why would they want your tweets spamming up their homepage?
Related posts:Facebook continues to beat Twitter about its social networking head
Google and Microsoft both have deals with Twitter?
Save money with social networking
Tags: marketing tool, marketing, sideways glance
GMail’s own Fail Whale
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Fri, Sep 04 2009 | 2 Comments
A few days ago GMail simply crashed. The website was down for a few hours and all across the internet it seemed as though people (particularly those attached to their Gmail accounts) were going to jump off the deep end.
Of course, Google does pride itself on its services that it offers, but you can’t expect for anything on the internet to be up 100% of the time. While it was a giant inconvenience for the site to be down during business hours on a weekday, sometimes this kind of stuff happens.
However, sometimes it is not always the fault of the website that you are trying to visit that is having the problems. While Google hasn’t come out and said exactly what happened on Tuesday to lead to the huge failure of its Gmail system, there is a quite a bit of speculation going around the internet. Of course there is a lot of speculation floating around, what else were people going to do while they couldn’t access their email accounts?
Sometimes, and it seems most frequently with large sites like Twitter, the cause of outages is a group of malicious programmers trying to shut the site down for their own enjoyment. Twitter experienced an outage last month and it was all due to a group of Russian programmers that wanted to shut down an account of a rival that lives in the neighboring country of Georgia. It seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to get your point across.
I only decided to touch on the Gmail fail because every news outlet I have been reading has been talking about it and going back to the “The internet is not safe and venerable” statement to remind everyone how “bad” the internet is. Well, this is not something new that people just discovered when Gmail crashed.
Related posts:Gmail account deactivated; stupid that it happened and stupid that Google obliged.
Google and Microsoft both have deals with Twitter?
Using Twitter as a marketing tool.
Tags: speculation, Twitter, inconvenience
Could Tweeting cost you your job?
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sun, Jul 12 2009 | 0 CommentsDo you update Twitter a lot? If you answered yes (or perhaps you just update a few times a day?), do you update Twitter while at work? If you answered yes to that question, the hot microblogging site could end up costing you your job. You may be documenting your day in 140 characters or less, but the site has really become a burden to employers due to people either sharing far too much (i.e. I got a new job offer, and it’s amazing) or simply being extremely unproductive while you should be working.
Of course, there’s always the Tweets that end up looking very unprofessional anyway like about how awful your hangover is or a “legendary” one night stand. If your Twitter is open for everyone to read, please don’t Tweet this.
People have lost job offers as well as jobs they currently have due to sharing too much information on the site. This just proves, while you may think that no one really reads your Tweets, someone might end up reading it all.
Alexandra Levit, author of They Don’t Teach Corporate in College warns about Twitter usage, “Always assume that there are work people looking at your posts.”
Here are some of her tips to social-networking that may end up helping you keep your job (this includes you, Facebook power-user!)
Keep your politics private.
Ah. Politicking on the internet where everyone can see exactly how you feel about each politician can end up making you alienated from your boss and other co workers. It may seem innocent when you talk about favorite political platforms, but you may end up insulting the wrong person.
Never dish about work (i.e. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all)
This is particularly important if you often talk about how much you dislike your work. I’m not sure it’s as bad if you’re saying good things about how much you love what you do. I have a friend on Facebook who constantly updates about what he does, but he always has great things to say.
Update only at lunch.
Yea, status updates are time stamped and your boss and coworkers can definitely tell exactly when you’re updating your status, so try to leave the pressing issues until lunch (but remember to follow the second rule).
Things that aren’t okay to do at work: Twitter and anti-productivity.
Save money with social networking
Save Money With Social Networking?
Tags: new job, political platforms, tweets
